Healthy Vegan Recipes For Your Summer Road Trip

Posted on May 15, 2019

When eggs, cheese, and meat are off the menu, you might assume that road tripping gets a little tougher. But being vegan doesn’t mean wasting away or subsisting on convenience store peanuts. You might be surprised by how much vegan "fast food" there is when you think outside the box.

That's why we developed a tantalizing sampler of eight healthy vegan recipes for your next road trip that are portable, tasty and don’t require billions of ingredients or master chef-level training. Not only that, most of these healthy vegan recipes are also gluten free.

Easy, Healthy Vegan Cheesy Roll-Ups

Faux cheese is a great treat to pop into your cooler for your next camping excursion or road trip. This recipe layers sliced almond or soy cheese inside flour tortillas for a handy breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Simply swap to a GF wrap to adjust for food intolerance.

To prep your roll-ups, add the desired number of cheese slices or amount of spread to your tortilla or wrap with a slick of your favorite condiment. We especially love a lettuce and mustard combo, but you can go all kinds of directions here!

To cut down on time spent cooking or prepping in camp, you can easily pre-make these roll-ups and store them in plastic bags. Or simply bring the ingredients along separately— this recipe comes together quickly no matter where you are.

Dried Fruit Baggies

A little dried fruit goes a long way, and it’s more appetizing when it comes in adorable baggies. Long car rides can contribute to, uh, fewer trips to the bathroom—so adding a few prunes or dates to your diet won’t hurt.

For this healthy vegan recipe, we recommend using dried apples, banana chips, peaches, prunes and pineapple for a nice color and taste combo. Dried mango is another choice that many fruit fans can't get enough of. And half-baggies of your favorite blend are plenty for a snack or light breakfast!

Add heat: Soak for ½ hour and stew in water with a little sugar for an awesome breakfast alone or with cereal.

Polenta or Grits

This healthy vegan recipe can be cooked ahead of time and stored in your cooler. Corn is nutritious, gluten free, and it mixes and matches well with both sweet and savory flavors. Blend corn grits with almond or soy milk, plus raisins, for a hot or cold breakfast alternative to oatmeal.

Polenta slices are also delicious topped with roasted red peppers, mushrooms, olives, pickled veggies, marinated TVP or seitan, cashew cheese, faux chorizo and avocado, berries and "cream" or almost any other topping.

Add heat: stir in cheese, salt and pepper for corn-based lunch or dinner, or grill polenta slices for a smoky, savory treat. Kids of all ages will love tiny "polenta pizzas" cooked over the grill, too.

Summer Squash Starts This Healthy Vegan Recipe

Squash is cheap, colorful, flavorful, and easy to make. Just look at yellow squash dressed up with colorful pico de gallo, a healthy vegan recipe that takes just minutes on the camp stove or grill.

Combine one sliced zucchini or yellow squash, fresh or soaked (dried) shiitake mushrooms, and two heaping tablespoons of pico de gallo (buy fresh). Cook on stovetop by sautéing in oil, or bake in tinfoil. We recommend adding some olive oil, salt and pepper for flavoring if foiled.

No heat: As an alternative, we recommend zucchini chips dipped in pico de gallo (or salsa) and guacamole. Or finger-sized squash logs are a fun alternative to carrots and broccoli for dipping in your favorite sauces!

3 Un-Loaded Potatoes

Potatoes are vegans’ BFF. They are filling, healthy, portable, and nutritious. There are only two problems with potatoes on the road, however: they don’t always cook quickly, and once sliced raw, they don’t keep well. To sidestep these issues, we recommend bringing whole, fresh potatoes to slice thin for your healthy vegan recipes at camp.

Wash two baking potatoes, then slice into very thin (less than 1/8”) circles. In two foil pouches, add potatoes with one tablespoon oil, salt and pepper for each pouch. Add sliced, fresh onions and garlic if you feel ambitious. You can also try hasslebacked potatoes on the grill.

No heat: Another way around potatoes' long cooking time is to pre-cut french fries or jojos at home, boil them till they're al dente/just starting to get soft. Then, once they're cool, pack into plastic bags or tin foil pouches with olive oil and seasonings. You can grill or fry them at camp, bake them in hobo packs nestled in the coals, or cook through at home and eat as a room-temperature snack.

Breakfast Tacos Are A Flexible Healthy Vegan Recipe

Instead of scrambled eggs, we recommend scrambled tofu that mimics the texture of eggs and soaks up flavors. All you need to do is buy a block of semi-soft, silken tofu. For flavorings, sprinkle with coconut aminos, fresh basil, pico de gallo or salsa, and one avocado.

One package of corn or flour tortillas can go a long way. Simply fill with your vegan scramble, and add any veggies or extras you like, such as beans, mushrooms, squash, vegan cheese or cream, hot sauce, etc.

Break up tofu and fry up in oil, then and a splash of coconut aminos and stir well. Some add a pinch of turmeric to get the yellow hue of fresh eggs. Then add pico de gallo and mushrooms and stir till hot. Top with sliced avocado and shredded basil or cilantro.

No heat: The great thing about this healthy vegan recipe is how easily it converts from fresh-made to pre-packed. You can make your tofu scramble at home and pre-slice your ingredients for quick assembly out of your cooler or backpack, or convert to burritos that you can wrap in tin foil or plastic wrap for an on-the-go meal!

Super Fast & Incredibly Cheap

For the kids on your trip, or the ones who eat like kids, potatoes can be your best friend. Unlike the recipe potatoes above, this time use instant mashed potatoes for a simple, satisfying meal straight from your childhood.

This is a high-speed dish falls into that purgatory between whole food and junk food, but it’s cheap, filling, and easy to prepare. And depending on the toppings you choose, it can easily qualify as a healthy vegan recipe. If you choose to go the other route, well, we certainly won't judge.

Prep: Follow directions on box. You’ll need a camp stove, water, along with salt and pepper. We recommend adding a teaspoon of high quality olive oil to bring flavor to the potatoes, plus some facon bits, faux butter, or grated faux cheese.

Mac-N-Nearly Cheese

If you eat gluten, you cannot go wrong with mac-n-cheese, and packages of “fancy” and fully vegan varieties are readily available these days. Prepare per box instructions, but bring along some sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, pico de gallo, green onions and extra vegan cheese for quick toppings. You can also mix in meat alternatives, spinach, or other veggies to turn a processed treat into a fairly healthy vegan recipe that's all your own.